Interns At Tech Companies Are Better Paid Than Most American Workers (qz.com)

According to a survey conducted by Jesse Collins, a senior at Purdue University and former Yelp intern, interns at tech companies make much more money on an annualized basis than workers in the vast majority of other occupations. From a report on Quartz: About 300 of the nearly 600 people who responded to the survey said they had received internship offers from big companies like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and Goldman Sachs for 2017. On average, the internship recipients said they would be paid $6,500 per month, the equivalent of $78,000 per year (the survey is still open, so results may change). Many also said they would receive more than $1,000 worth of stipends per month for housing and travel or signing bonuses. Internships typically run for a summer, but we've annualized the numbers. If the average intern who responded to Collins' survey were to work for a year, he would make $30,000 more than the average annual income for all occupations in the U.S., which is $48,000. Of the 1,088 occupation categories within which the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks average income, workers in only about 200 of them on average make more money in a year than the intern would.

Comments

news flash - income varies by region

[Anonymous Coward]

A salary that is comfy in Kansas will have you sleeping in a van in Silicon Valley.

Re:news flash - income varies by region

[OrangeTide]

Most interns split the rent 3-5 ways. It's hard to find a rental for such a short term, and the rates tend to be pretty astronomical. Splitting a $6000/mo(+/- $1000) 4-bed/2-bath townhouse four ways is a practical way to go. But the $40/hr that an engineering intern might make in SV dries up pretty fast with rent, food and taxes.

I've lived in a decent 1-bed apartment in silicon valley (san jose) for $1200/mo. There were laundry facilities and a swimming pool and it was only a 1 mile walk to a light rail stop. It was month-to-month, no lease, but I was a long time resident and I doubt an intern that had no credit and only wanted to stick around for 3 months would get the same deal.

Re:Why should this be surprising?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then every place you've worked made poor use of its interns.